Glamorous wife of BP boss Tony Hayward rides to his rescue

As the chief executive of one of Britain's biggest companies, Tony Hayward had it all – a £4 million-a-year pay package, a country house in Kent, a villa in Spain and the means to indulge his passion for sailing.

For the moment Tony Hayward is spending more time with his family at their country housePhoto: GETTY

By Robert Mendick and James Quinn

8:15AM BST 12 Sep 2010

But the high life was shattered by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico – the worst in history – which forced him out of his job and left his reputation in tatters.

Even a multi-million-pound public relations campaign launched by BP in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion failed to win back popular opinion.

Gaffes including Dr Hayward's remark that "I would like my life back," and pictures of him relaxing on his yacht at the peak of the crisis, fuelled the vilification against him.

He found himself on the wrong side of vitriolic attacks led by President Barack Obama.

Now a fightback is under way – and it is Dr Hayward's glamorous, fiercely loyal wife who is leading it.

Maureen Hayward, a geophysicist by training, is writing a book in defence of her beleaguered husband, recently dubbed America's 'most hated and most clueless man'.

She has begun emailing friends and colleagues of the oil boss requesting anecdotes about his life and business career. The biography, still in its early stages, will endeavour to restore his public standing.

Her intervention is timely. On Wednesday [sept 15] Dr Hayward will face another grilling – this time at the hands of British MPs – over whether the Deepwater Horizon explosion could happen here.

A friend close to Dr Hayward told The Sunday Telegraph he had received an email from Mrs Hayward asking for help with the book.

"She is looking for some nice stuff about him to counter all the horrible things he had to take during a very intense period at the peak of the oil spill," said the friend. "The project is at an early stage. She thinks it will be interesting to do it."

The friend added: "Mo sent some emails around to various friends looking for anecdotes and the like. Everybody likes Mo. She is a really lovely woman. She just thinks this will be a really interesting project to take up."

Mrs Hayward, 49, is more than qualified to embark on such a project and Dr Hayward certainly needs her help.

With a degree from Edinburgh University, she met her husband while she was working as a geophysicist with BP.

She put her career on hold to bring up their two children, but in recent years, with the children growing up, she had begun a doctorate at Leeds University, intriguingly investigating the environmental and social impact of oil companies operating in the developing world.

"She is very, very bright," said professor Andy Gouldson, of Leeds University's School of Earth and Environment, who was supervising her doctorate.

The Haywards married in Edinburgh – Mrs Hayward's home town – in 1985, when the couple were both junior in BP.

She has remained fiercely loyal to him during his rise through the ranks to take up the top job, which paid him a total £4 million last year.

He will finally leave the company at the end of this month, forced out by Americans who blamed him for the spill, but with the consolation of a pension pot valued at £10.8 million.

Now Dr Hayward is 'getting his life back' in Britain, having spent several weeks in the US trying to manage the oil leak. A close friend said the executive, 53, will take at least two months off before considering a range of job offers in the energy sector.

For the moment he is spending more time with his family at their country house, near Sevenoaks, with views over the Kent countryside and a pool in the garden.

Their large drive is home to several cars including a Lotus sports car and a four-by-four jeep.

Dr Hayward, who lists yachting and competing in triathlons as his main hobbies along with supporting West Ham, also owns a home in Spain – registered in his wife's name – which has been recently renovated.

The six-bedroom villa, set in ten acres of gardens in hills in Andalucia, has with its tennis court, basketball court and games room been described as 'the perfect place to unwind'.

But Dr Hayward is also making efforts to enjoy life again in London. Last week he was spotted looking relaxed and tanned in a leather jacket in Pimlico in central London in the company of a family friend from Colombia, where the Haywards used to live.

While his reputation in the US lies in tatters, one source was anxious to stress Dr Hayward remains a well-liked and respected figure in the UK, where many people feel he was made a scapegoat for the disaster.

He has even been bought drinks in London bars by total strangers, who feel sorry for him.

Meanwhile Mrs Hayward is likely to beaver away on her biography, having quit her doctorate for 'family reasons'.

She is still listed on Leeds University's website under her maiden name Maureen Fulton as a PhD student studying "the role and effectiveness of corporate social responsibility programmes at a local level in the extractive industry".

The website states that the thesis was to have included case studies from Colombia, where one of their children was born.

Mrs Hayward wrote at one stage on the website Friends Reunited how she was planning to "embark on a phd at Leeds University" adding: "Trying to make myself more useful again. I must be mad!!!!!!!!!!!"

But Prof Gouldson said Mrs Hayward had withdrawn from her course before the oil spill, having completed one academic year.

She has been very protective of her family in the aftermath of the spill, complaining that her family had been unfairly targeted.

The Haywards were given a police guard at the height of the crisis and Mrs Hayward, who has largely remained in the shadows, broke her silence to declare at the time: "Members of my family have had nasty phone calls and we have also had mail from groups.

"Tony is obviously away and we are miles away from him so it's upsetting."